The invention relates to a spray powder, an iron-containing surface layer produced using the spray powder, and also a method for applying such a surface layer.
Bearing apparatus of all kinds, for example sliding bearings (plain bearings) and rolling element bearings, account for the majority of bearings used in technical applications. The term “bearing” or bearing apparatus will be understood in the following to mean all bearing parts defining the function of the bearing, for example bearing parts which roll on each other or slide on each other or are supportingly interengaged with each other and which cooperate in bearing contact.
Signs of wear are as a rule associated with the friction arising at the bearing running surfaces cooperating in bearing contact, in particular on the bearing running surfaces. In order to avoid these signs of wear necessitating a complete exchange of the bearing apparatus, bearing shells are used among other things in sliding bearings, which can be exchanged once they have worn out. However, the constructional design of the sliding bearing is made considerably more complicated by this and, moreover, an expensive servicing process is made necessary for the exchanging of the bearing shells.
Sliding bearings are often used for the journaling of shafts. Combined journaling in sliding bearings and rolling element bearings is sometimes also used. As a rule the bearing parts are manufactured from cast iron with spherical graphite or from heat-treatable steel, or are often manufactured from steel-based or iron-based sintering materials or from malleable iron. The bearing shells are mostly realized from so-called two- or three-layered bearings. The manufacture of such bearing shells is relatively expensive however. With long running lifetimes of the engine the bearing shells eventually wear out to such an extent that changing of the bearing shells becomes necessary, with the changing of the bearing shells in such engines being associated with high costs, as has already been mentioned above.
However in other kinds of bearings as well, for example in ball bearings, the premature wear of the bearing parts, for example of the balls of the ball bearing, of an axle to be supported by the ball bearing, of a cage for the balls of the ball bearing, or of other bearing parts of the ball bearing, is a basic problem which involves considerable repair work and servicing and in the end is associated with considerable costs.